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| A moveable Feast |
I
did read The Old Man and the Sea in Chinese
version when I was in secondary school, i.e.: long long time ago, this was the
very first time that I met this author, not much idea about him and not quite
remember the details of the story either.
Second reading was in about 5 years ago, For Whom the Bell Tolls; I was deeply engaged into the following poem (old English version) before started :
“No
man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is
a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed
away by the Sea, Europe
is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie
were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne
were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde;
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell
tolls; It tolls for thee." (By John Donne)
Then,
I began to read Chapter 1, when I reached the end of the story, this poem once
again resonated in my head...this
year, I’ve decided I must read A Moveable Feast
as my third reading of Hemingway, because:
“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” (excerpt)
I was originally thought this book will bring me to a lot of fascinated scenery or day to day life in Old Paris; but what I’ve found, like most of other readers, this book is more related to the life of Hemingway & his wife Hadley during those days in Paris; pieces of stories with his weird but interesting friends, or those lovely one like Sylvia Beach who gave a helping hands to numerous writers/ artists/ poets when they were no body once upon a time…
What the author actually let me discover is the world of a writer, why he must quit the journalist career to be a full time writer, what he’s actually thought when he was writing in the café, how & why he reacted to his weird friends…A new picture for me to know about Ernest Hemingway – a delicate person.
It seems a
bit strange for me to use this word on him if you know his background and
hobby, but truly, this is what I feel, both his personality as well as writing
technique.
Like many others, I like to read fictions, they lead us to infinitive imaginations, anything can be happened and experienced. But recently, I started to enjoy reading non-fictions, by knowing more about the author, more resonance can be made while reading the story they’ve written.
As usual, I wish you may have a chance to read this book, too. There are a lot more phrases inside which are worth to read, here is the one which tells me why he said Paris is a Movable Feast that I couldn't agree more.
“…but this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy.”
P.S.- cover design of ebook may be different from what I've got in physical paper back
